USD game-fixing coach seeks probation today

San Diego  Saying he never fixed a basketball game and made a “small profit” for passing along information to bettors that “he legally obtained,” former University of San Diego assistant basketball coach T.J. Brown has requested probation for his role in a federal game-fixing case.

But prosecutors are recommending that when Brown is sentenced Thursday he receive 30 months in prison for being “the middle man” who “made everything possible” in a scheme that has resulted in guilty pleas from all of the major defendants.

“It is critical to acknowledge that absent Brown’s willingness to prey on young college athletes the scheme would never have existed or succeeded,” the prosecution wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Brown, 34, becomes the sixth of 10 defendants indicted in April 2011 to face sentencing. Last month, Brandon Johnson, USD’s all-time leading scorer and the man alleged to have fixed games at Brown’s direction, was sentenced to six months in prison that he will begin serving May 31.

Like Johnson, Brown pleaded guilty without a formal plea agreement, which often narrows the sentencing range. Brown, who left USD in 2007, admitted only to introducing a current member of the Toreros team — since identified as Ken Rancifer — to the bettors in February 2011 in an unsuccessful attempt to fix games in the season after Johnson had exhausted his collegiate eligibility.

Prosecutors contend “three or four” USD games were fixed the previous year. In one, against Portland, Johnson was injured and did not play.

“Mr. Brown passed along information that Mr. Johnson was unable to play that game,” Brown’s attorneys wrote in their sentencing brief. “Mr. Brown knew Mr. Johnson was injured and merely asked Mr. Johnson if he was playing against the team doctor’s orders. Since Mr. Johnson was one of USD’s top players, bets were based off of this information. Just because Mr. Brown acquired insider information from Mr. Johnson does not make it an illegal action.”

In another 2010 game, against Loyola Marymount, USD lost 72-69. Johnson scored four points, well under his average, and did not take a last-second shot that could have sent the game into overtime.

“Mr. Brown asked Mr. Johnson what he thought would happen in the game,” Brown’s attorneys wrote. “Mr. Johnson said that certain key players on USD’s team were not going to be able to play and that Loyola’s defense had shut him down before, so he believed they would lose. … Mr. Brown only passed along Mr. Johnson’s opinion to the co-conspirators.”

Prosecutors said Brown received about $10,000 per fixed game during the 2009-10 season and included excerpts of corroborating conversations from FBI wiretaps of his cellphone.

In a call made on Feb. 24, 2011, Brown talks about making the bettors “a hundred grand, two hundred grand last year.”

In a call with Johnson a day earlier, Brown appears to encourage him to keep his “affiliation” with the team to continue the scheme in future seasons.

“All you gotta do is find one (player),” Brown is quoted as saying, “whoever their main (player) is.”

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The prosecutor’s sentencing brief said, “Brown’s conduct showed that he cared most about his own financial gain and the exploitation of college athletes meant little to him as long as he profited. Brown’s conduct also showed, that absent his arrest in this case, he had no intention of stopping his conduct.”

Defendants and attorneys are under a protective order from U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia not to discuss the case publicly.

Brown’s attorneys included more than two dozen letters of support, including several from co-workers at the Stingaree, a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub where Brown is a manager. There are also letters from former San Diego State basketball players D.J. Gay, Mohamed Abukar and John Sharper, as well as Daniel Brown, T.J.’s younger brother who played at USD from 2005 to 2009.

In a letter to the judge, Brown’s wife, Veronica, references the impact of a prison sentence on their two daughters.

“I know TJ’s fate is in your hands and I am writing this letter to beg and plead to you not to send TJ to prison,” she wrote. “Our kids would be devastated and I don’t know how I would survive emotionally or financially without him.”